2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Miami Herald
This wildly popular pizza restaurant from Kendall is coming to South Miami
Kendall's favorite pizza spot is planning to pop up in South Miami.
Known for its Detroit-style pies with a crispy, airy crust, Vice City Pizza is taking over the restaurant Bar Bella in South Miami for a summer residency.
Starting Saturday, June 14, at Bar Bella, you'll be able to order the square-cut pizzas from Chef Carlos Estarita, which are made with Vice City's special two-day fermented dough.
You can order a simple square of cheese or sausage, of course, but Vice City is best known for its special pizzas, including the Roni & Hot Honey (pepperoni and Mike's Hot Honey); the Brie and Fig (mozzarella, brie, gorgonzola, caramelized onion, pistachio and fig jam) and the Ron Swanson (bacon, pepperoni, fennel sausage, banana peppers and Mike's Hot Honey), named for everybody's favorite carnivore on the TV series 'Parks and Recreation.'
The Bar Bella menu, which featured tapas and barbecue items, will not be available throughout the residency. But the restaurant's back bar Abi Maria, named for owner Jorgie Ramos' old spot in Downtown Dadeland that closed in 2023, is bringing back its bites menu. You'll find choices like cured meats and cheeses, chicken wings and small plates like calamari, truffle tots, Bolognese arancini and proscuitto croquetas.
Ramos, who co-owns Vice City Pizza with Estarita and is also the owner of Cebada Rooftop in Coral Gables, opened Bar Bella in late 2024 in the former space of Taco Craft.
Now located at 2615 SW 147th Ave., Vice City Pizza came to life as a pandemic pop up (the original Abi Maria was one of the first places the popular pizzas were served). Estarita quickly became known for making all sorts of nontraditional pies, like La Colombiana, with Colombian hot dog slices, homemade pineapple jam, garlic cilantro sauce, bacon and black forest ham or El Cubiche, with caja china pork, confit garlic and onions and mojo aioli.
If South Miami is as booming as Ramos believes, Vice City should fit in nicely.
'All the elements of this neighborhood are ready to explode,' Ramos told the Miami Herald earlier this year. 'Going out two blocks from your home and having good food and drinks and not worrying about parking is great. . . . South Miami is what the Grove used to be. It's surrounded by great neighborhoods and people desperate to stay close to home.'
The Vice City residency is scheduled to run through September.
Vice City Pizza at Bar Bella
Where: 5829 SW 73rd St., South Miami
Starting: June 14
Hours: 5 p.m. midnight Wednesday-Thursday; 5 p.m.-1 a.m. Friday-Saturday; 5-10 p.m. Sunday; lunch hours on Saturday and Sunday starting in a few weeks
More information: @barabimaria on Instagram
